


Announcing Your Place in the Family of Things

by lq_traintracks (lumosed_quill), traintracks



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, M/M, Multi, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:36:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumosed_quill/pseuds/lq_traintracks, https://archiveofourown.org/users/traintracks/pseuds/traintracks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an unknown spell gives Teddy amnesia, and he can't remember what his relationship with James Potter ought to feel like, James' boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy, hatches a plot to finally get James into bed with his secret first love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tryslora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryslora/gifts).



 

  
I was the boy who tried to recall a nonexistent past – any memory of my mother's warmth, the sound of my father shaving his whiskers – and for obvious reasons, nothing ever surfaced.

I was the boy who manufactured a childhood, who got by, who saw by the light of his wand – saw just enough to carve out a little bit of a life.

But things didn't become clear, didn't become beautiful, until I forgot everything.

~~

"Don't worry. I can counter this."

"What?" His throat was sore. He didn't know why his throat was so sore. He could barely see.

"I've got you…I've got you…" The voice was trembling but confident, and this person was jostling him about and it made his head hurt.

"M'head hurts," he said, wincing.

"I know, Teddy. But I've got the antidote. Here. Take a drink. It's foul, so just do it fast."

"What? Who are you?" He scrambled to get away now.

Strong arms held him fast, but there was a falter in the voice. "Y-you don't…recognize me?"

He squinted, and the face over him became less fuzzy: dark, almost-black hair going every which way, green green eyes, a jagged scar on the creased forehead, just over the right eye. "No," he answered. "Should I?" A new panic started to set in.

The man swallowed hard. "Teddy. I need you to trust me right now. I'm your friend. I'm Harry." The voice broke just a little when it said, "Harry Potter."

Teddy. He'd called him Teddy. His name was Teddy? He frowned, his breath coming fast. "I don't…I can't…!"

"I know, and we'll deal with that, but right now you need to drink this or your heart's going to stop in about one more minute."

"What happened to me?"

"I'll tell you, but bloody drink this, Teddy!" the Harry person shouted at him, and something in him responded. He opened his parched lips and drank the stuff from the brown vial that tasted like someone's sweat with maybe some tar mixed in. "Good, good!" the man over him enthused. "Now, it might make you slee—"

Everything then went black.

~~

 

James was just in the middle of getting his prick sucked when they heard the front door of the house burst open.

Scorpius lifted his head. "What was that?"

"The door. Get dressed." James shoved him from between his thighs none-too-gently.

"Bugger!" Scorpius shouted.

"Shut it!" James hissed, pulling on pants and denims in a rush.

"But you said they wouldn't even be back tonight. You said that the mission was three days. 'Three days of suck and fuck,' you said to be precise and—"

"Shh. Listen."

They were both quiet. James could practically see his boyfriend's heart thumping away in his skinny chest. But what he heard stole any last vestiges of arousal he'd had.

"Get him to the guest room – don't bother with the stairs right now." That was Aunt Hermione's voice. Then someone called, "Teddy? Teddy! Can you hear me?" And everything else after that went unheard.

"Merlin," he breathed, magicking on his clothes and Scorpius' clothes, too, as fast as he could.

"What'd you hear?" Scorpius hissed.

James looked at him, the emotion welling in his eyes as he peered into Scorpius' worried face. "Teddy," James said breathlessly. "Teddy's hurt."

 

~~

"I don't know. I don't know!"

Teddy stirred, realizing he was lying somewhere soft and warm. He was under blankets, his clothes had been changed, his head still hurt.

"But you're Head Auror. If you don't know how to—"

"I understand that, Ron. We're all working on it. Hermione's in the books. I mean, there has to be something."

"But physically…he'll be okay, right? I mean, you fixed that bit."

Teddy heard a heavy sigh. "Yeah. He'll be okay. He just…can't remember. Ron, I've never heard of that spell before. It wasn't Obliviate."

"Yeah, no, me either. And I thought we'd have heard them all by now."

"I shouldn't have let him go in first. He's only been an Auror two years and—"

"Teddy Lupin is second only to you, Harry, when it comes to fighting dark magic," the Ron voice said. "He was fully capable. He went in on point because he knew the specs best. Nobody could have countered that curse. You have to believe that, mate."

Pain shot through Teddy's head, and he couldn't help but moan. Suddenly, a body was right next to him, and Teddy squinted his eyes open. "Where am I?"

This bloke calling himself Harry, who seemed to care about him, who had likely carried him here, wherever he was, sighed again. Teddy was beginning to hate that sound. It meant he wasn't going to like what he heard next.

"Home," Harry said. "Teddy, you're home."

~~

 

They hadn't been allowed in; his Dad had almost shut the door in his face. But not before he'd squeezed James' shoulder and said, "He'll be all right." Then he'd shot a lukewarm greeting at Scorpius and locked them out of the downstairs guest room where every powerful Auror, Healer, and available Hogwarts staff member had collected to try to figure out what was wrong.

All James knew was that…

"He doesn't remember."

"C'mon," Scorpius said, taking his hand. "I'll make us some tea, right?"

James had nodded and let himself be dragged to the kitchen. It was dark and silent in there at one in the morning until Scorpius wanded the candles lit and got the kettle on. Then it felt a little more like home. Not exactly like home. Because Teddy was in a locked room, in a bed, hurt and not remembering him.

"He's not hurt anymore, Jamie. He just can't remember," Scorpius said, sitting across from him and taking James' hands in his own.

"Stop reading me," James muttered curtly. But the hand-holding was rather nice. Most people thought Scorpius Malfoy was all misdeeds, bad magic, and buggering, but James knew better: his boyfriend had a sweet side – even a Gryffindor side James knew but never said for fear of that old Malfoy chin-jutting denial.

The tea steeped and the room filled with the warming smell of cinnamon and clove. "He'll remember," Scorpius said. "And if he doesn't…well, it won't be the end of the world. I promise."

"How can you say that? We grew up together! He's been like… He's been like a brother to me and now I've lost him."

"Okay, first of all, you haven't lost him, all right? He's in a room down the bloody hall, in one piece, thanks to your dad. And second of all, what are you on about, like a brother? Pull the other one, why don't you, you lying sod!" Scorpius was smiling at him, stroking along the backs of James' hands with his thumbs.

James just blinked at him. His heart was doing little flips. "I…don't know what you mean."

"Oh Merlin's sweaty arse, _bollocks_!" Scorpius laughed. "You think I don't know? You think you can shag me for three years and I won't catch on that you want to kneel at Teddy Lupin's feet and worship his gorgeous cock? You think I wouldn't want to share it with you?"

"Scorpius!" James shouted. He sounded like a prude old witch and he knew it. God, he was hot all over. He was red as hell. Damned Weasley blood. "But I love you," he said.

Scorpius smiled. "I know. But you love him, too. You have since you learned to wank your pud, right?"

James flushed all the worse. "How can you talk about him like that when he's…when he's…?"

"Alive and completely unaware of how things are supposed to be? How can I not?" Scorpius scoffed. "Don't forget who you're talking to, Jamie."

He got up to fetch the tea, and James felt like his world just got flooed to the other side of the Universe.

~~

 

Within two days Teddy was feeling physically fine. They'd tried to get him to go to some place called St. Mungo's, a hospital for wizards from the sound of it, but Teddy had vehemently refused. Wherever he was, while he couldn't quite conceive that it was his home, it felt rather good. And whoever this Harry Potter person was, Teddy liked being around him. He didn't want to be shuttled off to some hospital with cold floors and nameless nurses and nothing that was supposed to be familiar around him. Visiting hours and disinfecting spells. Teddy couldn't stomach it. So he asked to stay.

And Harry suffered his questions:

"I'm how old?"

"Twenty-six."

"And my last name again?"

"Lupin."

"Why can't I remember?"

And that one, nobody could answer except to rattle on about some spell some person did to him in words Teddy couldn't comprehend. They handed him his wand, and for whatever reason that was the one thing that held some glimmer of normalcy for him. He knew he was a wizard. He knew he lived in a world of magic. But that was practically all he knew.

Harry – who he'd gathered was not just his friend but his colleague and superior -- didn't seem inclined to tell him too much too fast. He'd overheard a meeting with all the rest of them while he was supposed to be sleeping. Some wanted to let him _Legilimens_ everyone, and Teddy had a vague recollection of what that meant, but still others objected, especially the lady who spoke precisely, like a school teacher. She'd said he could suffer something called backlash. That had made the entire conversation shudder to a stop.

Then Teddy heard Harry. "We'll do it as a last resort. For now, we let him feel his way."

And that's what they'd done. The others had left. Then Harry'd taken him to a room upstairs and told him that he stayed there often, that it was, for all intents and purposes, his room. He was there now, left to touch the belongings he could only assume were his own.

Teddy walked slowly about the space, running his hand over an ancient cherry wood bureau, a dusty trunk he almost couldn't wait to open – except that there were photographs on a shelf that caught his eye. He walked over and looked in astonishment at his own face – the face he'd seen in the mirror when he'd asked for one…the same crazy blue hair -- maybe a couple years younger, looking happy. He was in the same clothes he'd been in the night he woke up – some weird kind of fitted robe, a uniform, he thought -- but they weren't bloody and dirty in the photo; they looked brand new. Next to him was Harry, an arm slung around Teddy's shoulders, wearing the same uniform but a different color, and they were both holding up glasses of liquor in a toast.

The next picture was him as a baby being held by two people who could only be his parents. As he watched, a tearful, pink-haired woman kissed the top of his infant head while a scruffy-looking man wiped at his eyes.

And Teddy felt nothing.

He moved on to the third and last photo on the shelf. It was him – two years younger again – and he was with a boy of perhaps seventeen or eighteen. They were smiling broadly, laughing. Teddy had his arm around him and the bloke had both his arms around Teddy's middle. They were quite close. The other boy had reddish brown hair, fair skin – a lot like one of the ladies he'd seen around the big house, the one who moved about as if she owned it. As he watched, the Teddy in the photograph, the one that knew everything about his own life, ruffled the boy's hair. The Teddy in the room – this man who he was and didn't know – thought the boy would get arsed with him then. But he didn't. The boy in the photograph blushed, reached up and smoothed his hair down, and then wrapped his arm around Teddy's middle once more.

"I'm sorry to bother you."

Teddy jumped about a foot from the place he stood and turned to the door. And there stood the exact same person. Older by a bit, but the same. Teddy couldn't help but peer at him eagerly, as though he could just remember if he stared hard enough. "You're…" he said. "You're this fellow." He pointed to the photograph.

The young man in his doorway smiled. "Yeah. Want to take a crack at my name?" His words were light, but Teddy heard the fragile hope in his voice. This person was important to him. He was important to this person.

"I'm so sorry," he found himself saying. Then, "Do come in. It's all right."

The bloke edged into the room warily. He'd obviously grown since the photograph had been taken; he was the same height as Teddy now.

"I can't begin to guess your name, I'm afraid," Teddy apologized. "I'd probably just start with the A's and work my way down to the C's by midnight only to find out your name's Zane or something."

"James," the boy said softly. "My name's James." His smile was tender and almost shy.

Teddy felt something inside himself respond – something that felt just this side of familiar. "Well, then I'd've gotten it before dawn." He found himself winking at the kid, and James blushed, just like in the photograph.

They must be quite good friends? And yet there was an age difference. They wouldn't have gone to school together. They wouldn't work together. Teddy was at a loss as to why he'd feel so close to this person, despite the fact that he did seem perfectly lovely.

"So, what do you do, James? Are you a wizard, too?" Then, "I'm sorry. Would you like to sit? I'm afraid all I've got is this…well, it's a crap desk chair looks like. That or the bed." He swallowed.

"The bed's fine," James said, and though it sounded nonchalant enough, there was an undercurrent of what felt like nervousness to him.

Teddy held out his arm and they sat together and began to talk.

"Quidditch," the young man said.

"Bless you?" Teddy replied.

James laughed, and Teddy startled. It was a familiar sound. It was a comforting sound. But before he could process it, James went on, "It's a sport. I play it. I'm Keeper for the national team. Youngest Keeper they've ever had."

"And bloody talented as hell," came a new voice from the doorway.

Teddy peered around to see maybe the prettiest bloke he'd ever laid eyes on. But then how would he know? Teddy wanted to laugh, but the timing would make him seem terribly rude. Or mental. Still, the boy was striking: shining blond hair; svelte frame; lopsided white grin; big, long lash-framed grey eyes. He was beautiful but utterly unfamiliar. "Hello," Teddy offered.

He seemed to take that as his cue to enter. And when he entered, he sauntered. "I'm Scorpius Malfoy." He held out his hand. Teddy could see that James had set his teeth together; it made a hard angle of his clean jaw.

Teddy took the offered hand and shook. "Teddy Lupin, they tell me."

"We've met," Scorpius admitted. "I just wanted to say," he looked down at James and his gaze flared, "good luck." He smiled warmly back at Teddy again.

"Thank you."

"Don't you mention it." Then he looked at James again. "See you later then." He reached out and squeezed James' shoulder and then strode out of the room, this time shutting the door on them when before it had been open.

"That was interesting," Teddy allowed.

"Don't mind Scorpius. He's a ponce." James appeared agitated.

"He seemed rather fond of you. Are you good friends?"

James cleared his throat. "He's…he's my boyfriend, actually." Then he managed to look Teddy square in the eye, though he was flushed and barely breathing.

Oh.

His boyfriend.

 _Oh_.

"Oh," Teddy said, at a loss. He swallowed. "Well, he seemed lovely."

James grinned at him. "He's a lovely ponce."

Teddy laughed. No wonder he was friends with this James fellow. He liked him. Teddy scooted so that he could lean his back against the headboard. "So can you explain Quimmitch to me?" he said.

James grinned hugely, got comfortable sitting cross-legged across from him, and began, "It all starts with the Snitch."

~~

 

"Oh, fuck, Jamie," Scorpius breathed as James pounded his body against the wall, Scorpius' back to James' front, James' cock hammering home inside him, ready to come. "Tell me again."

"Sod off," James gritted out, holding Scorpius' hips in both hands, giving it all he had.

Scorpius leaned his head back against James' shoulder, eyes blissfully closed, and sighed, "Tell me."

"Scor, dammit…"

"Tell me or I'll tell him."

"Dirty Malfoy," James ground out, loving him and hating him all at once.

Scorpius, the devil, laughed, and it closed his arse tight down on James' cock. He wouldn't last but another minute.

So he told his boyfriend, "We talked – for three –hours and – when I left – oh fucking Christ you're so tight –"

Scorpius wound his arm around the back of James' head, holding him close so James could whisper it into his ear, Scorpius' other hand flat on the wall in front of him. "Yeah, Jamie. Tell me what he did."

"He h-hugged me…close…and I…"

"You what?"

"I got so fucking hard," James gasped, and then he was coming. The memory of Teddy's arms around him was so fresh, the whispered, "Thank you," in his ear – how he'd smelled so beautiful, how James had sprung wood instantly against his hip and had to worm away. And now he was coming in his boyfriend's slick ass, loads of it, and he was moaning and trembling, stumbling, hands gripping hard at Scorpius' bony hips.

"Ride it out in me, baby," Scorpius soothed, butting back against him.

James grabbed his hair and pulled, got their mouths close, and kissed him quiet.

 

 

Two hours to dawn and James lay awake next to his first real boyfriend. Scorpius was wheezing in his sleep, something James found hilariously endearing – usually. Tonight, he was too pensive. He was too guilty. Because Scorpius wasn't his first love. That was Teddy Lupin, and James had never told a soul. How Scorpius had known was rather beyond him. James had taken pains to hide it. Still, Scorpius, for all his free-wheeling reputation, his fuck-first-study-later approach to life, was a skillful wizard, had unending curiosity, and possessed not the best moral code. It was entirely possible he'd even simply taken advantage of one night of James talking in his sleep, which Al had assured him he did do.

Despite the vigorous fuck when James got back to his room tonight and found Scorpius waiting for him with a hand around his own prick, James felt guilty about that, too. He'd shagged Scor like everything was all right – like Teddy wasn't balefully alone in the room three doors down, empty of memory, stripped of everything love was made from.

He'd fucked Scorpius like he hadn't just come from Teddy's room, from the kind of all night talk that cemented relationships, that bound hearts. James told Teddy how it started with Scorpius sixth year, about cheating on his Muggle Studies OWL and never getting caught, about how flying around a Quidditch stadium was the closest thing to heaven he could think of -- all things that Teddy had already known.

He knew he wasn't supposed to tell Teddy too much about his life, but he couldn't help reminding him what a brilliant wizard he was.

"I am?" Teddy asked, head tilted, eyes bright.

James had nodded. "You're kind of my idol."

And then Teddy had blinked at him, the candles they'd lit burning down low, casting long blankets of shadow. He'd said, "James, tell me," and James' breath had stopped before he'd finished, "Is my hair always this silly color?"

James smiled now, staring out the window at the setting moon. _No, but whatever color it is, I want to run my fingers through it until you either have to push me away or snog me one or the other,_ he thought.

And then he looked down at Scorpius. Beautiful, wicked Scorpius whose mouth on his cock after class that day, under the bleachers, had been what had convinced James he simply must be dodgy. And if this was dodgy, he'd happily suffer every homophobic epithet in the book to keep Scorpius Malfoy in his bed, by his side, in his life.

They'd been inseparable from that day. And now Scorpius wanted him to bed Teddy Lupin. He hadn't come right out and said so, but he would. James knew his boyfriend, knew his scheming mind and open heart, and he knew what was coming. He knew Scorpius probably even already had a plan. James knew he should feel repulsed by it – the idea of tricking an oblivious Teddy into bed with them – and he was. He absolutely was. But still some perverse part of him, some deep desperation, saw this as possibly his only chance.

He wanted to do it so very badly.

James sighed and carded his fingers through Scorpius' wild sleep-hair. The other boy stirred but kept sleeping. "I love you," James murmured. "You're a jackass, and I think this idea of yours is vile, but…I love you for it."

"No punkin juice…" Scorpius slurred.

"Bugger, you're awake, aren't you?"

Scorpius smiled but didn't open his eyes. "Isn't it the rule that you have to jack someone off if you wake them up whispering mushy rubbish in their ear?"

"I've never heard of such a rule," James smiled.

But his hand was already slipping down Scorpius' stomach, and the sheet was already tenting, and the moon drifted down behind the hillside as James jacked his boyfriend back to sleep.

~~

 

Teddy found Harry in his study the next day going over parchments, his glasses perched on his nose. He'd debated bothering him. But after spending half the night in a sleepless stupor, staring at the picture of himself with James, then the picture of himself with Harry, back and forth until he'd fallen asleep with both on his chest, it really seemed the only thing to do.

"James is your son, isn't he?" Teddy began before Harry could even invite him in.

"You're remembering."

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"Come in and sit, Teddy, please." Harry pushed his papers aside without a second thought.

Teddy thought he'd sit across from Harry, the desk separating them, but Harry came around and sat in the chair next to him, turning it to face him, leaning forward, elbows on knees.

Teddy sighed. "He has your smile. And your jaw. And your ears."

"My ears?" Harry smiled. Then, "He's my oldest son, yes. There's also Albus and Lily. They'll be here later today."

Teddy scratched his head. "I don't mean to be rude, but it's a bit odd to live with your boss and his kids, isn't it?"

Harry looked flummoxed. His lips pressed together as though keeping back words he very much wanted to say. Finally he took a deep breath and just said, "You're always more than welcome here."

"I don't feel like my memory is budging at all. I talked to your son for hours last night, and it was like…I don't know what it was like."

"I'm glad you're talking to James, Teddy. That's good. And I believe it will just take time."

"Do you?" Teddy asked. "Do you think I'll ever work again? What if I can't remember any spells, like, ever?"

"If you don't remember, I'll simply have to teach you until you've got them all learned again," Harry said with a sympathetic smile. "I know James would be happy to help, too. His main interest is Quidditch, but he always got Outstandings in Defense Against the Dark Arts – not to mention if you need broom lessons. And Al's superb with potions. Lily's extraordinary at Arithmancy. Whatever you need, we're here for you. Hell, even Scorpius Malfoy. He's here every bloody day seems like, and I've never seen anyone hex like he can." Harry rolled his eyes at that.

"Can I ask you something?" Teddy began slowly, but Harry stopped him.

"You want to know if I know, right?"

Teddy just blinked at him, sure this was a trap of some kind, meant to get him to tattle on James and his beau. But it wasn't.

"I've known for a while," Harry said. "And it's not the gay thing that's the problem. It's the Malfoy thing, believe me!" He ran his hands through his hair and when they came away he ended up looking like some sort of deranged, electrocuted professor. "I guess, once I knew, I sort of hoped he'd wind up fancying an older lad, someone with a good head on his shoulders, a Muggle dentist like Hermione's mum and dad. Or an Auror."

He didn't say it weird or anything, but Teddy got a weird feeling in his stomach. A nervousness. Like suddenly a spotlight was shining down on him and he didn't know the words of the song he was supposed to sing. He swallowed.

Harry went on, "But all I've ever wanted for my kids is for them to be happy. And Merlin knows there are worse cads out there than Scorpius, although not by much." Harry shook his head. "I don't know. It's none of my business. I keep out of it. Scorpius gets a stocking on Christmas and all. Like it or not…well, there he is." And then Harry laughed. He clapped Teddy on the shoulder. "I'm not supposed to offer you a drink – the Healers said it'd be bad for your memory – but I think a butterbeer'd be all right, don't you?"

"I'd bloody love one," Teddy said. And then for one bright moment, he heard a familiar bell-ring of laughter in his head, tasted the creamy bubbly warmth, felt the heat of a blazing hearth on cold, wet feet…. Then it was gone. But three words remained, in the otherwise empty black: "The Three Broomsticks," he said.

Harry turned from where he'd been headed for the door. "Teddy!"

Teddy stood abruptly. "Is that a place? A place I've been?"

"Yes!" Harry said, coming over and hugging him hard.

At first Teddy just stood there shocked that he'd remembered anything and that it hadn't taken any effort – it had just come upon him like the sun through clouds – then he put his arms around Harry, and he laughed.

 

~~

 

The next day Scorpius had to get back to work.

"Dad's got a new shipment of books coming in and he said he doesn't trust the new stockboy to Leviose them to the right shelves. I told him it's what he gets for hiring a greenhorn Ravenclaw. Bloke'll have to read every book before he shelves it."

James shoved him in the shoulder. "My sister's a Ravenclaw, you git." But then he pulled him right into a hard kiss. "I don't want you to go," he admitted once they broke apart.

"Why not? He's more likely to shag you alone the first time, you know."

"I'm not going to try to shag him, Scorpius." James sighed. "Maybe I should tell him."

"What are you on about? James." Scorpius took him by the shoulders. "He'll forgive you afterwards. There won't _be_ an afterwards if you tell him the truth."

"I don't want to hurt him."

Scorpius stroked along his jaw with his thumbs, and James shivered. "You won't, Jamie. For once in your life, trust me."

James grinned. "I've always trusted you. I've always been able to see right through you, Scorpius Malfoy." His boyfriend rolled his eyes, but James went on, "I'll just have to come to grips with loving a stockboy is all."

"Shut it," Scorpius scolded, but he was smiling. "General Manager, thank you very much, you bum."

"Who are you calling bum?"

"Sodding Quidditch players who get three months off every bloody year!" he teased. But then he leaned in and grabbed James' earlobe up in his teeth, and he said around it, his hand slipping down his chest slowly, "But I do love this one's hard body." His deft tongue licked where he'd bitten.

James swatted him on the arse, but the compliment felt good. "Back this weekend, yeah?"

"Yeah. And you'd better have bedded that bloke and have him ready for a third by then." Scorpius winked.

"Scor," James warned, but the prat ignored him, and on his way out of the room, he threw back, "But owl me if you have any trouble, right?"

"Right," James murmured, already feeling too alone in his own house. "Right…" he whispered, sitting heavily on the foot of his bed.

 

 

Al and Lily flooed home that afternoon. Lily was first through, and James grabbed her up in a hug.

"You're not going to miss too much, are you? No tests this week, right?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "If it's all right with Mum and Dad for me to miss three days of school, what's your problem?"

"I dunno. Big brother-itis?"

"They've got potions for that," she said and then went to hug their dad.

Al was next out of the floo. "Merlin!" he exclaimed. "You people could clean it out now and then, yeah?" He hugged James hard and long, the kind of hug you reserve for people just out of St. Mungo's or something. "How you doing?" he said lowly.

James frowned. "Why?"

Al leaned back. "Seriously?" Then, "You're so bloody thick sometimes. We'll talk later."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means we'll vocalize from our lips and throats a little further on in the day," he deadpanned, but then he'd already moved on. "Dad – how's the Auror business?"

"It's crap right now," he answered. "How's teaching?"

"Assistant teaching, Dad," Al corrected. "Professor Longbottom's fun, but Chang's a taskmaster in Potions. She's got me mixing night and day. You'd think I was a slave! You'd think I was a Slytherin!" He cleared his throat and looked at James. "Sorry."

James just blinked. It wasn't often his relationship with an often-unnamed Slytherin went something other than unspoken of.

Once everybody had dusted off the floo powder and said their hellos, Teddy's presence by the doorway became like an awkward beacon.

"Hullo," Teddy said, and James could tell he was forcing the friendliness. He just plain didn't know these people.

Lily lost her mind for a moment and ran at him. "Oh, Teddy!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him, burying her face in his neck.

"Lils, he doesn't bloody recognize you," Al provided with zero tact.

James elbowed him in the ribs.

"What? We talked about this before we left and she still can't help herself."

Lily backed away, all apologies. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into me. When we heard you were hurt, I just…well, we just couldn't wait to get back here and make sure you'd be all right. I'm Lily. By the way." She backed up.

Teddy smiled at her reassuringly. "Charmed," he said with a little bow.

"And I'm Al. The awesome one." Albus stuck out his hand, and Teddy shook it with a chuckle.

"Right," he said. "Surely your awesomeness will be the first thing to come back to me."

Then Teddy's eyes met James'. They looked at one another across the room for all of three seconds, but it caught James' breath. It was as though Teddy looked to him for grounding, for mooring in a sea of unfamiliarity. James nodded at him, wanting to help him any way he could but also feeling quite unraveled by the way Teddy's eyes flickered from blue to a sort of mossy green, rich and bright, while he watched.

 

~~

 

Harry went back to work and Teddy spent a few days getting barraged with so-called fun and familiar activities with his kids.

They'd tried Quidditch (Teddy's broom bucked like a bronco and he got himself stuck up a tree.) They'd played wizard chess and watched Muggle shows on the telly. They'd fixed Teddy's favorite meals and stared at him while he ate.

They'd made popcorn and sat around the living room swapping stories.

"Remember when he scored us the hard cider for your party, James, that weekend Mum and Dad actually went away together to, where was it? Bloody Wales? Leave it to them to go to bloody _Wales_ for a holiday. I mean, Bali, anyone?" Al stuffed his mouth full of popcorn and continued. "But what the plonker here didn't tell us was that it was just sparkling cider! And we all thought we were drunk off our arses but we were just…"

"Dorks," Lily supplied.

"I did that?" Teddy asked, looking around the living room at these people who seemed to think he was their best friend. His gaze fell on James in the end, and he nodded, although it was Al who answered.

"You did indeed. You got us good that time, Teddy. But we got you back."

And then he'd proceeded to recount how he'd convinced the others to turn all Teddy's clothes pink for a week.

"But shit if it didn't work on you, mate!" Al had laughed, Lily joining him.

Only James had been relatively quiet, staring into his tea or into the hearth or into Teddy's eyes.

Teddy found he sought out James' gaze often. It felt comforting and real and something else entirely. It felt a little too good, soothing and exciting all at once.

And Teddy found himself knocking on James' bedroom door at night, wanting company, wanting something less boisterous than Al, less bubbly than Lily. Teddy wanted the easy way he could talk to James – about his fears, about what this felt like to be so alone and surrounded by over-eager friendliness. What it felt like to be undiscovered by oneself.

He kept James up too late, but he didn't seem to mind – kept reassuring Teddy that he didn't start back to practice for another month, that he wanted Teddy there.

Their talks always ended in a hug good-night. Teddy wasn't sure why he wanted to hug James. Maybe because of that photograph – the one with Jamie's – for he was becoming Jamie – arms around him. He wanted to keep feeling that. He liked feeling that.

He liked that it made James flustered. All sorts of feelings of guilt flooded Teddy when they embraced. _He's a bit young. It isn't supposed to feel this way._ And yet it did. It bloody did.

Teddy had felt James get hard against him. Teddy had liked it. He'd liked it an awful lot.

 _He's nineteen,_ Teddy would tell himself, lying in bed at night, reliving the day, searching the black corners of his mind for anything bright wanting to surface. But it was always just Jamie. It was the soft looks across a room. It was the long talks, the intermittent laughter, the shared space.

It was the auburn of his hair, the strength in his sport-hewn body, the arms that held Teddy hard.

_He's nineteen._

_Yes, and you're only twenty-six. It's not as though you've got a foot in the damned grave! Maybe you and he have felt this way all along. Ever thought of that? Maybe he's just dying for you to remember._

But then there was Scorpius.

How could he not think of the two of them together? How could he not think of his own involvement ruining everything?

"Fuck," Teddy sighed, reaching over and dousing his light.

Harry would be back day after next, and maybe he'd have answers. He'd be back from wherever he'd gone on his important Auror business.

Teddy missed a career he couldn't recall. He missed a life he couldn't remember.

But what made that all right was Jamie.

Teddy shut his eyes, grabbed a pillow to his body, turned over on his side and fought the sordid daydreams that wanted to come.

~~

 

James found Teddy the next day in the kitchen with his brother and sister. Again. They had him blindfolded and were making him smell things.

"Merlin, what are you doing to him?"

"Smell is the sense most connected to memory in the brain," Lily informed him, wafting an apple tart under Teddy's nose.

"It's all right," Teddy said in his general direction.

James walked over, took the blindfold, and eased it off his eyes and then off his head completely. Teddy gazed up at him, blinking, a tender smile tugging at his lips. "Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," James answered. Then, "But you're lying."

"What are you on about?" Al asked, in the process of bringing over what appeared to be the neighbor's wet dog.

"I mean, he's lying. It's not all right, you two treating him like a lab rat. Now, dry Donald off and send him home."

"But—"

"Now!" James yelled. It wasn't often he raised his voice; his siblings startled.

"All right, already. Don't get your knickers in a twist," Al said.

"Too late," Lily joined in.

But they dried the dog with a charm and then left to return him to his rightful place inside the Donoghue's warm living room.

"Thank you," Teddy said, trying to fix his hair from where the blindfold had mussed it.

Before he thought, James reached out and smoothed down a particularly unruly indigo strand. He froze, looking down into Teddy's kind eyes, turning brown, then he snatched his hand away and cleared his throat. "Want to split this apple tart then?"

"No, actually."

"No?"

"No. I want to go out."

"Out where?"

"I don't bloody care," he sighed. "I just want to take a day off from trying to remember. I just want to be for a while."

James found himself nodding, though his insides were a riot. Teddy wanted to go out with him. Just the two of them. Almost like a date. He'd get Teddy all to himself for the day, and he didn't even have to feel guilty because it was Teddy's idea. It'd be rude not to go, he rationalized. He wasn't – he absolutely wasn't – succumbing to Scorpius' wicked ideology.

"Let's hurry before they get back," James said.

"We should leave a note," Teddy decided.

James went to the drawer by the fridge and pulled out a parchment and laid it down on the kitchen island. He wrote quickly:

_Gone to Hogsmeade. Don't follow us. Don't wreck the house. Back in a few._

_Teddy and James_

"Good?" he asked.

"Good," Teddy smiled. "Will you Apparate us? I'm afraid that's a little beyond my skill level at this point."

James gulped. "Sure. Just, uh, take my arm?"

Teddy stood, and James had to remind himself how to breathe as he took not James' arm but his hand, holding it snugly and gently in his own. James swallowed, tried to concentrate, and then they cracked away.

 

~~

 

They were starving, so they ate first, and once they were full, they walked through the shops talking of nothing important. They'd separate from one another to investigate different shelves, but then Teddy would always find James' eye across the store and smile or wave. James would wave back, and his smile was always warm and full of promise.

James showed him funny pranks or got him to try weird flavors of candies. They went to the bookstore, and James became engrossed with a book entitled, _Keeping Quidditch Through Two Wars and Beyond_ , written by the apparently-famous Keeper, Lucky DeShazer. Teddy left him there to browse the Muggle literature section. When he peered around the corner twenty minutes later, James had moved on to spell books, so Teddy grabbed up the Quidditch tome and took it to the checkout.

"What've you got there?" James asked once he'd paid and gotten it into a bag.

"I'll show you outside," he said. "Let's get a drink somewhere."

"Sure," James said, then once they were outside, the shop's bell ringing over their heads, James opened the bag and pulled out his book. "You got this for me?"

Teddy shrugged. "Yeah. You did want it, didn't you?"

James nodded. He hugged the book to his chest. "Thank you, Teddy."

"It was my pleasure," Teddy told him and then watched a shiver work its way over James' body. He had the not-so-passing thought that he'd like to touch him and make that happen. "I'm parched," he said.

"Yeah." James cleared his throat. "Yeah, okay. Well, how about the Three Broomsticks?"

Teddy started. His mind's eye opened up. Cedar logs in the hearth. A girl laughing. Victoire. His…girlfriend? She'd charmed their mugs to automatically refill, and she was laughing, and Teddy had kissed her in the alley earlier, and…

"Teddy? Are you all right?"

Teddy opened his eyes, not realizing they had closed. "What?"

"Where did you go? Are you okay?" James' hand was on his arm.

Teddy looked into his eyes, still seeing another time. Then James' thumb brushed over his arm, and Teddy blinked. He was staring into caring, frightened brown eyes.

"Teddy?"

Teddy licked his lips. "Jamie," he said. "I think I just remembered something."

James' reaction wasn't what Teddy had been expecting: he looked, if anything, terrified.

"It's really nothing," Teddy prevaricated. He'd do anything, he thought, to take the fear out of those beautiful eyes. "It was just this girl. I think it was while I was in school. She might have been…I dunno, my girlfriend?"

He watched James swallow, his jaw tightening. This was getting worse, not better.

"What was her name?" James asked, though Teddy could tell he already didn't like the answer.

Oh.

"Uh, Victoire? I think?"

James looked down. He nodded. Teddy wanted to pull him close and tell him that it wasn't her he wanted now – hell, he hardly even remembered anything at all. It was James he wanted. Teddy took a breath and then took his wrist gently. James looked back up at him.

"I remember her," Teddy said. "Barely. But I don't… Jamie, I don't feel anything for her. Do you understand?"

James looked down at where Teddy's hand encircled his wrist. He looked impossibly conflicted for a moment – he'd practically stopped breathing – but then Teddy shivered when James then slipped his own hand into Teddy's and took one slow, decisive step in, bringing their bodies just a couple of inches apart. "I think so," he said. Teddy tightened the hold on his hand, and James looked into his eyes once more.

"Do you want to say fuck the drink?" Teddy breathed.

"Yeah sure," James breathed back.

Then the book fell to the ground, and James' arms came around him, and their lips crashed together, and James' tongue licked into his mouth, hot and not at all hesitant. Teddy pulled him in, his hands at James' lower back, his hips, sliding his tongue over Jamie's, into his mouth and _oh my sweet God_!

Before he knew what he was doing, Teddy had James pressed back against the shop window, and James moaned into his mouth, and he tasted like lemons and peppermint and everything good there was to eat. Teddy's cock was getting hard. Their kiss was wild, untempered, their bodies pressed tight.

"Dear Merlin," Teddy heard behind them and broke away to see an old woman with a hand over a little girl's eyes, walking away as quickly as she could without tripping them both.

"Blimey!" came another muffled whisper of awe, this time from one of a flock of Hogwarts students gazing at them from inside the window James was backed up against.

"Shit," Teddy laughed uncomfortably.

James was smiling and blushing both.

"Maybe we should go now?" Teddy said when James made no move to Disapparate them.

"Oh, bugger. Right. _Accio_ book," he called. Then they squeezed through space and landed in James' room back at the house. James tossed the book aside, charmed the door closed and locked quickly, and then they were kissing once more – hungry, can't-wait kisses – and James' hands were going up Teddy's shirt, skating hot over his skin, up his chest, and Teddy was pulling at James' shirt, trying to get it off.

He stopped suddenly, though.

James whispered, "What is it?" shucking his shirt anyway, working Teddy's up his stomach.

"Scorpius," Teddy said. "You have a boyfriend, Jamie. I can't—"

At that, James broke into a breathtaking smile.

Teddy frowned. "What?"

"He'll be over the moon," James told him. His fingers danced up Teddy's abdomen and made his cock twitch.

"What – why?"

"He wants this, Teddy – you and me."

Teddy's eyes couldn't help but drop to James' chest, his sturdy shoulders, bitable neck… "He does? You're serious?"

"Yeah," James told him, leaning in to nip wet kisses at Teddy's throat. "He'll be even more thrilled if you want him, too."

"Like…all of us? Together?" Teddy felt a little dizzy at that.

"Yeah." The fingers on his stomach slid up his ribs, onto his nipples. _Christ…_ "Would you consider that?"

"Bloody hell," Teddy sighed. "I think I could consider that, yeah."

James smiled, and Teddy couldn't not kiss it off his perfect mouth, then.

"Have I ever been in a threesome before?" Teddy laughed while James pulled his t-shirt off and walked back, pulling Teddy along by the waist, toward his bed.

"I don't believe so."

"Merlin, have _we_ …? God, I didn't think to ask. We haven't, have we?" Teddy's mouth went dry.

But James bit his lip and then shook his head. "No. I—"

"You what?"

"I've just always wanted to."

"You have?"

James' fingers were working his trousers open now, but Teddy couldn't look away from his warm eyes.

"Jamie?" He held James' wrists, keeping him from touching his cock, even though Teddy ached for him to do it.

James looked up at him. "I've been in love with you for ages," he said, blinking furiously.

"Christ…" Teddy exhaled. He palmed James' face and felt him shivering. "I… I hope I don't suck," he said finally.

James laughed, his face transforming with the brilliant smile that took it over. "C'mere," James whispered, kissing him chastely, pulling Teddy by the open denims. Teddy followed, unable not to, transfixed by James' beauty, his openness, his courage, the sheer sex in that hushed command.

Then James sat at the foot of his bed and pulled Teddy between his open legs. He looked up into Teddy's eyes as he pulled his trousers and pants down until Teddy's cock sprang free. And then his gaze dropped to it, and his eyes became almost all pupil. His lashes fluttered as he leaned in, and then he pressed his face to Teddy's cock and said his name: "Teddy…"

Teddy groaned, watching him, feeling the softness of his lips, the rough, shadowed skin of his jaw. Their gazes met again, and it was like…voltage. Teddy felt it in his cock and balls, down his legs, deep in his chest, up in his throat. He swallowed.

And then James held Teddy's arse in his warm hands, cupping, and took his cock almost all the way to the root in one go.

"Holy fuck holy fuck holy FUCK," Teddy hissed. "Jamie!"

He could swear that the bastard smiled even with his mouth full of Teddy's thick purple cock. If anyone had ever done this to Teddy before, he felt certain it couldn't have been half this wonderful.

It was then that Teddy realized – he was essentially a virgin.

"James," he said.

The little ponce bobbed his head, not listening.

"God, James, wait." Teddy wasn't sure where he got the strength to say that one awful word. But James slurped off of him, looking wicked with his mouth that blush color and slightly swollen.

"Don't you like it?" he asked, blinking.

Teddy palmed his cheek. "God, yes, I love it! It's just that… Jamie, I've never done this. At least not that I can remember. At all," he emphasized.

"Right," James breathed. "Merlin's beard." Then, "May I? Be your first?"

"Well, I fucking hope so," Teddy burst out, his prick already prematurely scared Jamie would stop.

James smiled up at him, took the base of his cock in his fist and thumbed the underside slowly, waiting.

"I just needed you to know that."

"In case you suck?"

Teddy breathed a laugh. "Yeah, in case of that."

"Don't worry," James said softly. "I'll show you how." And then he enveloped the head of Teddy's cock in his luscious mouth again and began to lick at the slit in a way that was maddening and had Teddy wanting to push hard into his mouth until he felt hot, tight throat.

He dropped his head back and groaned.

"It doesn't -- Christ – bother you that I'm older?" Teddy found himself asking while James enveloped his cock in his brilliant mouth again..

But the question made Jamie pull back on a little laugh. "You're kidding, right?"

The way he said it made Teddy think possibly he wasn't bothered one bit. Perhaps he was the opposite of bothered. "Just asking," he said.

"Teddy."

"Yes?"

"Shut it," Jamie laughed.

Teddy smiled down at him and nodded. And what happened then was perfect.

James took him to the brink twice with his mouth, both times pulling off and holding the base of Teddy's cock in the vice of his circled fingers until it passed some. "Bloody hell, what are you doing to me?" Teddy breathed, his legs starting to shake.

James smiled up at him, looking perfectly happy, perfectly calm. "Everything I've always wanted to," he replied. James nuzzled his cock.

"I'm dying to fuck you," Teddy told him.

Jamie smiled up at him, alight with pleasure, then he moved back and turned away, getting up on his hands and knees on the bed. He looked back at Teddy invitingly, his gorgeous arse bare, pale, waiting – the small, ginger-rimmed hole soft and fuckable before him.

"C'mere," Jamie said again with that sly little knowing smile that made Teddy feel as though James could ask anything of him and he'd do it. "Take those trousers off and bring your wand to bed," James said to him, dropping his head to wait.

Teddy's cock began leaking badly at the sight of him there like that, submissive yet in utter control.

Teddy shucked his trousers and mindlessly grabbed his wand from where it had fallen on the floor. He crawled up, walking on his knees until he was right behind James.

"Now point it at my arse and say, _Madidus_ ," Jamie instructed.

Teddy gulped. "You're not serious."

"Do it."

Teddy swallowed. He couldn't help but gape at the vision in front of him, how James' bollocks hung, how heavy and hard his cock was, red at the tip and wet.

"You're bloody good at this; you should trust yourself," James told him.

"How do you know?"

"Wizard shite, Teddy. I don't know how you shag. I only suspect." James shot him a lusty grin over his shoulder.

Teddy took a deep breath, aimed the wand at Jamie's winking arsehole, and enunciated, " _Madidus._ "

James gasped, and Teddy saw that now he was slippery as hell and ready. Teddy touched the sweet pucker with the tip of his index finger, applying a gentle circling pressure until he breached it and sank his finger deep inside.

James let out a long wordless groan, arching his back.

Teddy began to finger-fuck him open. James felt soft and furnace-hot inside. Teddy desperately wanted to feel that around his cock.

"Fuck, how much more of this do you need?" he asked, feeling like a wanker.

James didn't seem to mind the rush. "I'm ready _now_ , Teddy," he whined. "Please… Put your cock in me."

Teddy's whole body flushed with it – something beyond but including lust. Teddy supposed he'd have to call it love. He withdrew his finger, letting the grasping rim kiss the tip good-bye. He laid his cock down in the cleft of James' arse, slid it there a few times just to see the contrast of its dark hue against his lover's pale back.

His lover….

He felt love for this person he hardly knew.

"It must have broken my heart not to be with you," he found himself whispering.

There was a moment of stillness – when James' body tensed against him and once again he seemed to stop breathing. Then he exhaled in a rush, "Teddy—"

Teddy massaged James' arse, gently butting up against him. "What?" he asked. "What is it, Jamie?"

"I--" James whispered. "I need -- to tell you. Teddy… Just—" And then whatever force had hold of him relinquished its grip, and James simply begged him, "Please. Please, Teddy. Do it now, please."

The last just killed him. There was an unmasked anguish there that spoke to something familiar inside himself. Teddy aimed, pressed forward, took a moment to find the right degree of pressure to angle, and then just like that, his cock popped inside the cinched ring of muscle, and James gasped. Teddy couldn't help but groan as he sank deeper and deeper – Jamie's arse to his cock like the heart to its blood, a connection so intimate it goes unquestioned by the body entirely. They fit so bloody good.

When he was in to the hilt, he shuddered, draped himself over Jamie's strong back, curling around this exquisite person who'd become so important to him, to whom his heart sang, and began to thrust. Teddy wrapped his arm around James' body, palm pressed to his chest, and fucked, feeling James move with him as they found the right pace, the right push and strive.

Teddy tasted the back rippling against his lips and wanted to die from the longing in his heart. He was fucking James Potter, and he was so full of love for him, a love he must have felt for years, that he felt it simply had to overflow, to escape the skin of his limited body, to cry out to the world somehow.

Teddy slipped his hand down and curled it around James' cock. He started to pull in time to his own hips' rolling.

James turned his head and bit into his own bicep, whining. Five smooth strokes and James came, rocking against him, panting and crying out, the warm semen filling Teddy's hand and then coating Jamie's cock on the next pass of his fist down to the root.

"Sweet Merlin," Teddy breathed, unable to resist the way Jamie's arse clamped down on him in rhythm with his orgasm. He felt it approaching and at once wanted to grasp at it, to force it on his body, and to push it away, unready to end this bloody transcendent thing he wasn't near ready for – or wouldn't have been if he'd known.

But in the end, he couldn't stop it. And he didn't really want to. He wanted to come inside Jamie's perfect body, to leave something of himself, to fall into this feeling and succumb to it completely.

When the climax hit him and he began to empty himself inside, to quiver with the intensity of it, Teddy closed his eyes –

\-- and then with every jolt of the orgasm came a new round of memory with it:

_Teddy teaching James to ride a broom._

_Dinners together when he'd come home from school, Al and James kicking each other under the table, Teddy shaking his head at James and getting that guilty dog look, the way he always, always deferred to Teddy, obeyed him. Adored him._

_And how hard Teddy had fought it. From the time he'd come back from Auror training and found James nearly a man, seventeen – tall and broad in the shoulder – and fucking God how he'd wanted this._

_This._

_For Jamie to be his._

Teddy's eyes snapped open, his entire world crashing down on him like waking from a dream in which one has been flying only to fall back into the body, slammed back into life.

"No!" Teddy cried, pulling out of him, falling backward, landing on the floor and still scrabbling.

"Teddy, what--?"

"I remember!" Teddy cried. "Christ. Christ!" His cock was still tingling. It could still feel him.

James turned, reaching for him, and Teddy snarled, "I can't believe you'd do this." The tears stung his eyes and throat.

And, of course, there was the guilty dog look he was so infernally familiar with. Everything was so horribly, scandalously _familiar_. God! His heart hurt. It was breaking like it never had. Not when he'd stayed at Hogwarts, choosing not to come home for first, second, third year because he thought Harry and his family would be better off. Not when he visited his parents' graves. Not when he slept with Victoire for the first time and realized something was very wrong with him. Not when he left school and trained in the mountains with healing magicks and didn't answer any of Harry's owls – when he tore James' letters to pieces.

It broke in ways it hadn't even when he'd come back home, the prodigal son, and started to mend his relationships, started to take responsibility for himself. When he became a brother again to Al and Lily.

When he held James in his arms after all those years and knew, without a doubt, that he'd never feel like he should. Not what he felt for the others. Never.

And now this.

Now everything he'd wanted for too long and worked so hard to push away had happened. James had known how Teddy should feel – and he'd let him do it anyway. James had gotten him to do it.

Teddy grabbed his clothes off the floor, accioed his wand.

"Teddy, please, I lo—"

"Leave me alone, Jamie!" Teddy cried.

He slammed the door on his way out. When he got to his own room, he put up every barrier he could, knowing Jamie wasn't half the wizard he was and would take days to bring them all down. He dressed as quickly as he could with his fingers trembling so badly.

And then he sat at his desk and buried his face in his hands. He wanted to break – to let himself dissolve into ridiculous tears. All the tears he never let himself cry before because he was trying to be so bloody strong for everyone.

But he didn't. He couldn't. There was something he had to do first. Something that made him sick – something that made him feel dark and powerful and horrible all at once.

He had to kill Scorpius Malfoy.

 

 

Go to [Part Two](http://traintracks.livejournal.com/39412.html)


	2. Chapter 2

 

James sat naked on his bed, stunned. When he heard the front door open and close, he assumed it was Teddy leaving – and his heart lurched in his chest – until he heard the muffled voices of his father and Draco Malfoy as they walked through the front hall to his dad's study. 

James felt the dueling emotions of relief and shame. And fear. He wanted to ask his dad to fix everything, even though James knew this wasn't the kind of thing even the strongest wizard in the world could 'fix'. And he knew getting his father's help meant confessing everything – what he'd done. It meant being honest in his own heart…that he'd tricked Teddy Lupin, a man who had always seen him as a little brother, into having sex with him while he was too vulnerable and oblivious to know better.

He felt sick – physically sick as though he might vomit. 

Merlin, how could he have been so bloody stupid? It'd be easy to blame Scorpius, of course; he'd been nearly coerced into it, hadn't he? Strongly persuaded was probably more like it. And yet, he'd wanted to do it. He'd wanted to with everything he was. Scorpius had never, not once, been able to get James to do something purely because Scorpius wanted it. James had turned him down time and again when the situation seemed too Slytherin for his tastes – when he thought someone might get hurt even though that was never Scorpius' intention. Foresight was not his boyfriend's strong suit.

He hadn't said no this time, and when it came right down to it, it was the worst kind of cowardice to blame a bloke who wasn't even in the bloody _house_ at the time. At the scene of the crime. James' crime, and his alone.

He'd let Teddy fuck him, make love to him, under the worst kind of false pretenses. James knew he deserved whatever it was he had coming. He felt deep and horrible shame. But he felt something even worse than that – he felt incalculable pain and fear for Teddy, for what he'd done to him. The worst of it was that James knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Teddy would die before he'd say anything against James. Teddy would protect James even now and keep this secret between them to his grave to spare James the shame and agony of anyone knowing what he'd done -- even if he could never forgive James. And really, why would he?

James swallowed the sick feeling and started fetching his clothes, his body still stubbornly singing in the aftermath of what he and Teddy had done. Christ, Teddy's beautiful cock has been so deep inside him just minutes before. He'd felt so _full_. James shivered, reluctantly performed a cleaning charm on himself, knowing he'd never feel Teddy's body close to his like that again. He dressed, fear and pain warring in his heart.

He had to tell Teddy how sorry he was. He had to somehow make him sit still long enough to listen. Maybe it wouldn't matter, but James had to finish that sentence. He had to tell Teddy that he hadn't done this on a lark or even just because he was, had always been, sexually attracted to him. He'd done it because he was stupid and he loved him – he bloody loved him -- and he just hadn't let himself think past that.

Walking down the hallway in his own house had never felt like such a journey toward indictment. When he got to Teddy's closed bedroom door, he hesitated with his hand ready to knock. Then he steeled himself, closed his eyes, and let his fist fall.

"Ouch!" James snatched his hand back, shaking it and then sticking his knuckles in his mouth. It wasn't a strong Shock Charm. James withdrew his wand and cast it over the door. No, the strong Shock Charm was three layers deep. James had just come up against the Stinging Shield.

James did the only thing he could think of: he performed the Silencing counter and then yelled, "Teddy! Teddy, are you in there?" He walked three paces down the hall and tried to knock on the wall instead. "Ouch! Shit," he hissed. He sucked on his abused hand some more, then yelled again, "Teddy, please, I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry about what?"

_Bugger._

When James completely lost both the ability to speak and even breathe, his father repeated the question, coming off the last stair and down the hall toward him. "Sorry about what, James?"

And from the look on his dad's face, 'None of your bloody business, Dad,' was not going to work. James thought about lying. He more than thought about it.

"I, uh, we had a fight is all."

"You and Teddy had a fight? What about? Can I help?"

James sighed. "No, I don't think so. Well, unless you can get him to talk to me through all these spells."

His dad came to stand beside him. He hadn't even drawn his wand yet when he said, "Whoa," in a sort of awed voice. He pulled his wand and methodically moved it around the door's frame.

"I counted six," James said.

"Seven," his father answered. "He really doesn't want you in there." Then James saw the horrible realization dawn. "Teddy did magic." His dad looked at him in that way that always made James feel as though he had no true secrets. He gulped, and his dad went on. "He remembers something. Remembers a lot."

James nodded slowly.

"James, what the hell happened? I've never known you two to fight much at all, much less…" He gestured to the many wards Teddy had felt the need to conjure. "How did he remember and why did you fight? What happened, son?"

James felt his heart drop like an undigested bezoar into his stomach. Hot tears sprang to his eyes. "I did something terrible," he confessed. And then, because he could tell he was never going to be able to lie his way out of this, he told his father everything except the details. He stared at the floor the entire time, but even without looking up, he could feel his father bristling with anger and shock.

Once James had finished, his father breathed, "You – you _what_?"

James gulped, unable to meet his glaring eyes. He resolutely stared at the floor and simply whispered, "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry."

James swallowed. "Yes. I'm so very sorry. I—"

He stopped, because there were footsteps on the stairs. For one fleeting, hope-crested second, James thought it might be Teddy – that he wasn't in the warded room and had gone down to the kitchen for biscuits and was coming back up to find James and tell him he'd forgiven him and—

"These curses aren't going to break themselves," came Draco Malfoy's infamous drawl. "Did you get lost in your own house, Potter, or -- Oh." He looked between James and his father and then said, "Well, just tell me where you've hidden the bloody Ogden's then, and I'll wait."

"I haven't hidden it from you, Malfoy, I'm just out, but hold on. Unfortunately, this concerns you."

"Dad," James begged. His father's hard look discouraged any more words.

"First of all, how are you at Seeing past entry enchantment spells?"

Mr. Malfoy gave a considering face. "Better than fair." He drew his wand. "But you'll need to take down that Stinger first."

James watched silently as his father and Mr. Malfoy worked on the door.

"What about his privacy?" James interrupted once they'd removed two layers of wards.

"We're not taking them all down," his father explained, frowning in concentration. "Just enough to determine if he's even in there."

"You mean we're breaking into an empty room?" Mr. Malfoy sounded annoyed.

"I'm sorry we're not more exciting around here," his dad replied. "But if Teddy's not in there, we need to try to determine where he's gone, and I have a pretty good idea where it might be and that _will_ interest you, Malfoy."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Potter?"

James looked at the floor again, his skin flaming hot with shame as his father, minus even more details this time, recounted what James had told him, including, of course, Scorpius' involvement.

"Scorpius persuaded you do this?" Mr. Malfoy's voice was soft but menacing. 

James absolutely could not look at him. "No," he said. "No, I take full responsibility. I'm the one who… I'm the one." He finally brought his gaze up to meet his father's and flinched.

"Malfoy, can you get the parchments you brought over? The ones in the study?" 

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Bloody hell, did I not just ask you to come back? I think they could help with this."

Mr. Malfoy grumbled something about people being entitled, secretive gits, but he left down the stairs anyway.

His father rolled his eyes but then frowned at the door, hands on hips. After several seconds of pensive frowning, he turned to James. "James Sirius…" he sighed. "Did you _want_ to hurt him?"

"No!" James shouted then calmed himself, though his heart still hammered mercilessly inside him. "Never. Dad, I…" He hesitated, casting a wary look toward the banister, wondering if Scorpius' dad could hear him still. He screwed up his courage. "I love him. I've always loved him." Tears blurred his vision, and he dropped his eyes to the carpet once more. "He's never been my brother," he said, letting the tears fall. "He's been…" He looked back up, forcing himself to face whatever disgust or revulsion he found in his father's face. "He's everything. Dad, Teddy's everything."

His father swallowed, and then he said something shocking: "I know."

James actually took a step back. "You know?" he squeaked.

"Would you want the Head Auror to be that obtuse?" his father rejoined. "So thick he doesn't even know his own son's heart?" He sighed hard. "I'd just hoped you wouldn't be so stupid about it, that's all. So selfish, James."

James' stomach clenched at the horrible word.

"But I suppose you had help, didn't you?" his father added tightly. "Bloody hell, if there is one thing worse than a Slytherin acting on his own, that's a Slytherin and a Gryffindor in cahoots, I swear to Merlin," he sighed, shaking his head. "Look. Once we find Teddy, I don't suppose I need to tell you that you need to make this as right as you can under the circumstances, and you need to do it right away, do you understand me?"

James nodded.

To his surprise then, his dad took him in his arms. "I'm disappointed in you, James. But you're a good person. You're a good man who made a mistake. And I know you didn't mean to hurt Teddy. I know that. All right?"

James sniffed and his father released him and went back to wanding over the door, looking for weaknesses in the fields. "Besides," he said then. "You're not the first bloke to do something stupid and thoughtless in the name of love. Or just, you know, great sex."

James heard the footsteps on the stairs again, saw his father's jaw tighten, and got the very strong feeling he hadn't been talking about his mum.

Mr. Malfoy walked down the hall toward them again. "You were right," he said through quite possibly clenched teeth. "This one we just worked out – it's the same."

"Let me see," his dad said, and then they bent their heads together over the parchment.

James didn't really have a clue what was going on, but his dad performed some sort of anti-curse, and a thin green stream of magic slipped off the door, washed over their feet giving James the willies, and then disappeared.

"That ought to help," his father breathed. "So, yeah, thanks," he muttered.

Mr. Malfoy's reply was an unintelligible grunt.

They seemed unwilling or even unable to look at one another. His father cast his wand over the door once more and sighed. "Yeah, he's not even in there. He Disapparated thirty minutes ago, or there about. But…" He raised his wand again. "I think I can find the hole he slipped through. And if I can, I think I can get the signature and figure out where he's gone."

James bit his lip. "I'm sorry," he said for lack of anything productive to do or say.

"I know, son," his dad said quietly. 

Mr. Malfoy looked extremely disgruntled.

Before long, his dad inhaled sharply. "Well, bugger," he said. Then he looked at James. "He's gone to Knockturn Alley. Three guesses."

"Oh fuck."

~~

Teddy waited until the last customer left the shop. He watched Scorpius' face through the foggy window as he dusted a shelf half-heartedly. Teddy then silenced the bell over the door, slipped in, and locked up.

He walked up behind Scorpius on spelled-quiet feet, then he accioed Scorpius' wand, spun the boy, slammed his back to the nearest wall, and pressed his forearm to Scorpius' throat. "It's because of you that I just fucked someone who's been the only bloody family to me my whole life, you conniving little prick."

Teddy was trembling with the rage – livid with it. Tears had sprung up in his eyes. He tried to blink them down.

"Teddy…" Scorpius gagged out.

"You don't deserve to speak, Scorpius," Teddy seethed. "I ought to end you right now." His lip, to his utter dismay, quivered on the last words. "Scorpius…" Teddy whispered around the knot in his throat. He pressed in all the harder into the other man's body, all but cutting off his air.

"Please," Scorpius wheezed. "I can explain everything. Please!"

Teddy pressed in harder for just a second, but then he backed off quickly, running a hand through his hair. He caught a glimpse of himself in a glass cupboard door; it was jet black now.

"How do you _explain_ getting me to fuck him? When you knew he thought of me as a brother, when you knew—"

"But he doesn't!" Scorpius interrupted, scared eyes wide, rubbing at his throat. He didn't even try to get his wand back. "He doesn't. He never did." Scorpius coughed, doubling over some.

Teddy swallowed. "You hexed him. I know you hexed him, you must have—"

Scorpius shook his head. He stood upright again, wincing when he swallowed. "No. No, Teddy. I would never."

"What, you _like_ him too much? You like slumming it and fucking your willing little Gryffindor? More man than your father was, then, is that it?" Disgust dripped from every word, and Teddy felt sick to his stomach saying it. He'd actually liked Scorpius before this. He'd stuck up for him. He'd been fond of him and secretly envied what he and James had together. Hell, he liked Draco, too! He dashed at the tear that wanted to fall from his lashes.

Scorpius stood tall, rolling his shoulders. He looked hurt, affronted. "No," he said. "No, I don't like him. I love him. I love him enough to help him have the one thing that would make him happiest in the whole bloody world. You, Teddy! He bloody adores you! How have you not been able to see that?"

Teddy just stood there, struck dumb. He blinked, unable to quite believe his ears.

Scorpius went on, "And as for my father, he's more _man_ than you think – just ask your dear godfather, huh? They've been shagging on and off since Auror training." Then Scorpius had the nerve to look disgusted with him. "Merlin, where have you _been_? Off feeling so guilty for wanting to fuck James that you've gone and blinded yourself to bloody everything and everyone around you? I want in your bed, too, but I guess that should be obvious – Scorpius Malfoy's such a little whore, right?" He turned then, putting stacks of books away in a huff, trying, it appeared, not to cry. "Well, if you can't see how much everyone loves you and wants you and how good that could be, you can just turn around and leave, Teddy Lupin. Leave me my wand, if you wouldn't mind too much; I know I'm not wizard enough to take it back from you."

Teddy stood and watched _Muggle History through Biblical Times_ shelved next to _Witch Wanda's 101 Hangover Cures_ , listening to the harsh thunk of book after book misplaced and Scorpius' sniffing in between. He remembered watching him and James kiss when they thought no one was looking – the soft press of smiling lips, the sheer joy between them, the hungry hands. Teddy had no doubt Scorpius loved James and that it was returned fully. James had the knack of bringing out the best in Scorpius, perhaps as Harry had Draco (more than he knew apparently). Teddy just had had no idea how deep Scorpius' feelings actually ran – how he'd do anything for Jamie. 

_Merlin…_ Scorpius would even risk sacrificing his own relationship with James to give Teddy to his lover.

Teddy almost didn't register that his feet were moving until he was upon Scorpius, right at his back.

"If you're going to kill me, just do me a favor and tell James I loved him, all right?"

Teddy had to smile a little at the Malfoy melodrama. He'd always liked that about Scorpius. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder, felt him flinch. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I don't want to kill you. I don't want to hurt you." He exerted a little pressure and turned Scorpius around. Then he was looking down into the clearest, prettiest silver-grey eyes he'd ever seen. They weren't cold like his father's seemed often to be. They'd never been cold. Everything about Scorpius ran hot. Teddy cupped his face. "I'm so sorry. May I?" He nodded toward his throat.

Scorpius nodded back, gulping, his breath short. Teddy opened his collar and saw the redness. He drew his wand. "Do you have potions here?"

"A few in the back."

Teddy accioed a bottle of Dew Drop Elixer and opened it. "Three swigs. All right?"

Scorpius nodded and drank, trusting Teddy now. He made a face, handing the bottle back. Then he smacked his lips a little. "Okay, not bad," he said with a small smile.

"How's your throat?" Teddy asked, setting the bottle down on the counter.

Scorpius nodded. "It's better. Thank you."

"Please don't thank me, I was a maniac."

"Because you love him."

Teddy just stared at the young man in front of him.

"You're in love with him," Scorpius pressed.

Teddy held his breath for one moment, but then the feeling rushed through him unchecked. When he breathed out, the word was there, waiting: "Yes."

Scorpius smiled. "He loves you, too. If I know him at all, he's feeling dreadful right now for what he's done." He dropped his eyes. "Like I do. I'm sorry, Teddy. I'm a git, what can I say?"

"You used me," Teddy said. "You used the situation to your own advantage."

"I know, and I'm sorry, but--!"

"No, let me finish. You used me, but… Well, you gave me what I was too much of a coward to ask for in the first place. You got me out of my own way, I suppose. What you did was manipulative and something less than honest, but… You did it for love."

Scorpius nodded. "I'm still sorry."

Teddy sighed. "I think, maybe, I'm not."

The smile that lit Scorpius' face was hopeful and adorable. Teddy thought about kissing him – wondered what his full, mischievous lips would taste like.

But not yet. Not like this. 

Not with James out there – hurting.

"Come back with me," Teddy said, not leaving any room for argument. "By now they've figured out I'm not there. They're liable to send out a search party for your dead body, I'm afraid."

"Floo?" Scorpius asked.

"No. Take my arm."

Scorpius swallowed again and then took Teddy's arm in both hands, looking up at him, both fearful and trusting. Teddy took one moment to touch that beautiful face again, then he Disapparated them both.

~~

By the time James, his dad, and Draco Malfoy got to Knockturn Alley night was falling. It took his dad and Mr. Malfoy five minutes to break through Teddy's lock charms. They broke into the shop then, James and Mr. Malfoy calling, "Scorpius!" And then James and his dad calling, "Teddy?"

His dad sighed. "No, they're not here." Then, "Hold on a moment, and I'll see where they've gone now." A few seconds later he rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't you know it." They all Disapparated back to the house again.

Before James knew which end was up, someone had thrown his arms around him from behind and wrestled him to the ground. "Got him!" Al shouted triumphantly as Lily stole his wand. "Accio Dad's wand, Lils, quick!" James wasn't even fighting Al's arms, but Al hadn't seemed to notice and was actively trying to get him into a chokehold.

"Quit it! Jesus!" James huffed.

"Um… _accio_ Dad's wand?" Lily said less than enthusiastically.

"Why are you trying to take my wand?" his dad said, clearly still in possession of it.

"Because you'd gone to kill Scorpius," Al gritted out, rolling on top of James to hold him there on the floor.

"If I'd gone to kill Scorpius, why did I take his father along with me?" he countered calmly.

"No one wants to harm Scorpius," came another calm voice. "Albus, let him up," Teddy ordered.

At that voice, James abruptly lifted his head -- right into his brother's chin.

"OW, SHIT!" 

Al rolled off, holding his face. James couldn't quite be arsed to care. All he saw was Teddy standing there in the foyer, looking down at him with deep brown eyes. And then Scorpius was there, too, standing at his side, smiling. James felt the rush of relief, seeing him safe. Scorpius came over and offered his hand. James took it and got up off the floor. He looked into his boyfriend's eyes. "You're okay?"

"Yeah. More than."

James touched his face, a thumb across his bottom lip. He smiled, and Scorpius returned it. "Yeah?" James persisted

"Yeah." Scorpius looked back at Teddy then. Somebody, somewhere, cleared his throat.

James' smile faded. He swallowed. Teddy's expression wasn't hateful, though. It wasn't reproachful or sick with hurt as last he'd seen it. It was soft and open. "Teddy, God, I'm so sorry," James told him in a rush.

He felt Scorpius slither around behind him, wrapping his arms around James' waist, leaning his cheek against James' back in that way he had when he was tired and grateful and just wanted to press close and say nothing. Teddy approached slowly. A slight smile curved one side of his beautiful lips. James gasped when, held there by his boyfriend (a damn sight better than his brother!), Teddy reached out and palmed his cheek. "It's good to be back."

"You remember everything?"

"Yes." His hand was warm and gentle, and James wanted to close his eyes and just savor the spicy, wonderful smell of him. "Look at me," Teddy commanded softly. James' eyes snapped open once more. He gazed into Teddy's. And that's when Teddy said, "I remembered that I've been in love with you for years."

"You've been what?"

"You heard me, Hot Hands."

It was a nickname Teddy'd had for him since James had accidentally won his first Quidditch match by falling into the Quaffle and knocking it away from the goal, a la Uncle Ron. Teddy was the only one who knew it had been an accident – a win by pure clumsiness. Thus, Hot Hands.

"Okay, everybody out," his dad called suddenly. 

"I knew it!" Al blurted, his chin apparently miraculously healed. "I bloody knew it! Ha! Hugo owes me ten Galleons!"

"Out, Albus!" his dad thundered. "Nobody cares what you knew right now, and nobody owes you any money."

All of this, James heard as though through a tunnel. Everything fell away except Scorpius' warmth at his back, and the thumb – Teddy's thumb – that stroked softly over his cheek.

"You, too, Draco," his dad ordered.

"Merlin's bloody beard," Draco Malfoy breathed somewhere in the vicinity of the study door. Teddy's eyes sparkled as they listened to the hushed row that followed.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Malfoy, it's polyamory, not the end of the world."

James felt Scorpius start laughing silently against his back.

"Bloody hell, Potter, it's…it's it's…"

"It's love." A smile crept into his voice when he added, "Get your arse into the study, and I'll explain it to you, you ponce."

Teddy bit his lip not to laugh then, too. James stared into his eyes like he wasn't real. Scorpius' hand slid up over his heart and rested there. Teddy took another step in, his hand slipping to cup James' head.

"Can you forgive me?" James asked.

Teddy answered by leaning in and opening James' mouth with the slowest, wettest kiss he'd ever received. James steadied himself with a hand clutching his boyfriend's thigh behind him and the other around Teddy's – his lover's -- neck.

He took it as a yes.

Epilogue

"You know, the next time you need to tell me that something insignificant is happening at an office where I just spent ten hours and left fifteen minutes ago, would you please not call me on this contraption? It's for emergencies, Sam."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lupin, I just—"

"Don't apologize. Just get a damned owl, would you?" Teddy hung up the cell phone with a sigh of disgust. He'd just picked up the evening Quibbler and been walking up the path toward home, almost at the door when the stupid thing had rung in his pocket. He'd known he shouldn't have answered it. He should have taken the thing back to the store for a refund, and he probably would have if Scorpius hadn't lost the receipt. 

Teddy mashed the off button again for good measure and opened the door, already opening the paper and frowning at the next day's weather report. He shut the door and cast a locking charm absently. Forty-five degrees and rain for the next week. His frown deepened. He'd hoped to take the boys to the shore. It _would_ have to bloody rain. "Scor?" he called. "Sc—"

That was all he got out before the scamp Apparated in front of him, grabbed him by the robes, and pulled him into a scalding kiss.

"Mmm!" Teddy exclaimed. Then Scorpius' hands slipped down, took him by the hips, aligned their bodies perfectly. Teddy dropped the paper and grabbed him close. "Mmm," he moaned, and started to walk him back into the bedroom.

"You're home early," Teddy said once they'd gotten to their destination and began to feverishly undress.

"No talking," Scorpius breathed, yanking Teddy's trousers down and getting on his knees. 

They never made it to the huge bed.

And it wasn't long – Teddy's cock had only just cleared Scorpius' thirsty lips -- before they heard James shoot through the floo in the living room. Scorpius, lovesick for James as he was, smiled around Teddy's cock, his spontaneous joy more than apparent. Teddy stroked his hair. "In here!" he yelled to their lover.

Teddy listened to the sound of James' boots along the wood floor. He watched Scorpius' wet lips sliding along his length and, for about the thousandth time in the last year, felt like the luckiest man on the planet.

"I see you've begun without me," James said from the doorway. 

Teddy looked up from Scorpius' pretty face, his lips parting as he took in James leaned there on one bent elbow against the jamb, making no immediate move to join in…just watching. He wasn't in his Quidditch uniform, just practice clothes, and the t-shirt hugged his physique like it had been poured on. Teddy smiled crookedly at him -- and started to languidly thrust.

James' lips curved into a filthy smile. "Fuck, I love it when you do that." Then he walked over and palmed Scorpius' face, a look of utter tenderness on his own, one hand absently (or not) on Teddy's hip. James knelt, and that hand slipped down his leg. "Hello, love," he said to Scorpius. Then he leaned forward and licked along Teddy's cock as it eased in and out of his boyfriend's mouth. 

Teddy shuddered and groaned, "Jesus, James."

James' tongue touched the corner of Scorpius' stretched lips, and Scorpius left off his cock for a few breaths while James kissed him deeply. Teddy stroked himself, rubbing the tip along Scorpius' clean-shaven cheek while he watched the two of them, still hungry for each other after four years together.

Teddy had watched them kiss like this innumerable times now. And it never failed to move him. This was his family. These were the two people who, aside from Harry, had taught him the most about the intractability of love -- its utter, stubborn permanence. 

When James left off Scorpius, humming with appreciation, Teddy fed his cock back into that extremely talented and enthusiastic mouth. Then he joked with James. "Oh I'm sorry, did you want him?"

James stood and smiled down at Scorpius for a moment more. "Always," he said, and Teddy got the benefit of that as Scorpius sucked on him harder. But then James was looking at Teddy, standing so very close, looking from Teddy's eyes to his lips then back again. "But I have other ideas right now."

"Oh you do?"

"Yeah."

"Pray tell," Teddy breathed. He had to grab hold of Scorpius' hair and forcibly slow him down or he was going to come too fast.

"I'd rather show," James said close to his ear, and Teddy shivered. His lover was in a mood – he could tell – and that meant only great things. James' hands slid over Teddy's shoulders and back as he maneuvered around behind him. They slipped down over the globes of his arse appreciatively. Then he said, "Get these off," tugging once at Teddy's trousers still tangled around his thighs.

Yes, he was definitely in a mood. Teddy had come to like this mood rather a lot. It meant James was feeling good. It meant he was feeling a little possessive and a lot horny and that Teddy was most assuredly in for a treat. He and Scorpius both were.

Scorpius sucked off and helped Teddy undress the rest of the way. He spared Teddy a little wink then before he went back to his cock sucking.

"Did you two plan this?" Teddy asked as he heard James undressing behind him. No better sound, he couldn't help but think.

"Of course we did," James chuckled. "Would you expect anything less?" Then he was pressed against Teddy, his hot cock sliding against Teddy's arse, James' hands running up and down Teddy's bare back, around in front to feel up his chest, his lips finding the back of his neck, licking and biting down.

"You know I never know what to expect with the two of you," Teddy breathed.

God, James was going to fuck him. How did he know? How did they both know what he needed tonight? What his tightly strung body and mind needed so fucking bad right now.

James hummed a laugh against his shoulder. Then he whispered the spell, " _Madidus_ ," and Teddy was suddenly so very slick; it dripped down his bollocks.

"Jamie…" Teddy sighed, feeling his lover aim his thick cock, the subtle, trembling movement of his fingers.

James licked a possessive stripe along Teddy's back, then he whispered, "I love you," and sank his prick into Teddy's tight hole, one heady inch at a time.

Teddy was suddenly very glad he'd backed Scorpius up against the wall by the door, because now he desperately needed the support. He leaned his hands on the wall, spreading his legs more, watching Scorpius swallow his prick as James pressed all the way inside of him, going balls deep with a lurid groan against his skin. "Oh Teddy Jesus…"

Teddy shuddered, the arousal rocketing through his whole body. He leaned his head back, closing his eyes, and James licked at the shell of his ear once before he murmured, "I fucking worship you. You know that, right?" Then he started to fuck.

His hands held Teddy's hips as he opened Teddy up, relaxing his hole with the relentless slow thrusting of his cock inside of it. "Christ, that feels so good," Teddy told him, told both of them. He dropped one hand to Scorpius' hair. Every fuck of James' hips drove him into Scorpius' mouth. His young lover started to hum around him. "Bloody hell, Scor," Teddy sighed.

"He's so good, isn't he?" James said, speeding up. Teddy felt Scorpius' hands slide up his legs to meet James' at his hips. Their fingers intertwined.

"Fuck me hard, James," Teddy demanded then. He was close and he knew it.

James obliged and began whipping his hips. Teddy rocked between his two lovers, his eyes rolling closed, hand making a tight fist in Scorpius' hair, a whimper escaping his throat. In seconds he was flooding Scorpius' mouth with hot come, sliding through it, the wet heat exquisite – Jamie's cock bearing down on him. Teddy shook, and his hips fucked, and he murmured sweet, dirty words to the beautiful young man sucking his cock, even as James' hand left his boyfriend's, traveled up the front of Teddy's body, up his stomach and chest, until it lay over his wildly beating heart, laying quiet claim to it, to him, as he shuddered.

When Scorpius had swallowed the last of it, James gritted out behind him, "Baby, you'd better move."

Scorpius licked his lips and then crawled out of the way, and suddenly Jamie was bucking hard, slamming Teddy against the wall with the force of his fuck. "Fuck…Teddy…goddamnit…oh fuck…!" Seconds later, he came, and the only recognizable word then was Teddy's name; the rest was inarticulate screaming while he emptied himself up Teddy's arse. Teddy just leaned his head against the wall, gulping for air, letting James pound it out in him – until he slowed…and slowed…and then slowed some more, losing rhythm, beginning to tremble.

"Bloody hell, that was so hot," came Scorpius' smiling voice from the floor near their feet. "I couldn't wait. I mean, I totally just beat off to that."

Teddy felt James smile against his back. He slipped his cock out, and Teddy hissed.

"Sorry, love." James kissed his shoulder. "You okay?"

Teddy turned and took James' face in his hands. It was suddenly physically painful that he had not yet kissed this man. "Shut it," he said, and then slipped his tongue into his lover's warm, pliant mouth.

~~

I was the boy who tried to reject a life of love – any memory of my family's warmth, the feel of their arms holding me tight – and for obvious reasons, I absolutely failed.

I was the boy who ran away from everything good -- until everything good finally caught up with me and made me stand still to be loved. 

I'm the man awake while his lovers sleep. The man with an arm draped over a beautiful Slytherin's skinny chest. Who is watching him breathe, listening to that ridiculous sound he makes. 

I'm the man whose hand lays over James Potters', whose fingers are warm and sweat-moist and gripping my own even as he dreams.

I'm the man who finally saw the light. And things didn't become clear, couldn't become beautiful, until I remembered everything.

End


End file.
